Graphic Communication – Adobe Illustrator

The first task I had to complete was creating basic shapes overlapping others using the shaping tool. Some of the shapes were made used a combination of shapes (rectangles, ellipses, triangles) and bringing them in front of each other. I also used the rounded shape tool to round off shapes with normally sharp edges.

Manipulating Shapes

Using the pathfinder tool, I could use 4 tools to manipulate shapes to punch shapes through shapes, for example the circle punched through the square. To create the heart, I intersected two circles, then intersected an upside down triangle and used the pen tool to drag the anchor points downwards to elongate the shape and round it off at the bottom.

Punching Shapes Through

Using the same techniques as mentioned above, I created this image.

Overlapping Shapes

Using the colour palette, I could create the white section of the circle, or this can be done by selecting the circle and the large red square whilst holding the shift key and using window – pathfinder – tool.

Letter

Letter Form

To create text, window – type – character – sets up a window on the right which contains options to control the font type, size, line width, spacing etc. I also used the area type tool and the type on a path tool to create a shape or path for text to fit in or on top of. To include a symbol for this task, I could click on type – glyphs which lead to me to options to show all symbols in the particular font selected. Type – create outlines is another option to edit the text, and window – large stroke creates a new options window. Using the square shaped colour option tool at the left hand side, I could change the colour of the body as well as the stroke. Using the drop shadow tool, I could create a realistic shadow for my letter, and use a slider tool to change the opacity and fade of it.

Letter Form Using Translucent Shapes

Flag

I created a circle, overlapped it over the letter and changed the opacity of it so that the letter was still visible through the shape.

Union Jack with Countryside Image

This image was created by downloading a desired image onto my documents, file – place – window – image trace – mode – black and white. This produces a silhouette of the image and I could use the slider tool to adjust the detail and sharpness. Object – expand – OK. This creates individual shapes so i could delete certain parts of the image to allow another image to be seen behind it. Object – ungroup – shift and select parts I wanted to colour. Object – compound path – make.

To insert the background image place – image – send to back – re scale – clip in mask.

Note: A compound path effectively groups an image but it can contain gaps. It is seen as one image.

Intersection of 2 Shapes

This image was created by drawing a circle (Shift + ellipse tool) and then drawing one long rectangle in the desired place. To duplicate the rectangle and place it below, hold alt and drag down to place below. Illustrator can show guides to show where to place a shape in proportion from the last. Window – pathfinder – minus front.

Animal

Image Used for Tracing

This is the image I downloaded to use for tracing over. I used this image because I thought it had good definition in the face using strong colour variations.

Finished Drawing over Image

Using the line drawing tool, I mostly drew 3 sided polygons to make up the body, using smaller sized shapes for more detailed areas like the snout and eyes.

Finished Drawing Using Lines

Taking away the image used to trace shows my final image. The way the shapes have been drawn in certain areas clearly shows the definition in the face.

Finished Image with Image behind

Using the shape tool, I drew many different sized 3 sided polygons, except in this drawing they are separated, unlike in the first drawing.

Finished Image

Deleting the image behind revealed the final image.

Colour Palette Automatically Created by Illustrator

This colour palette made selecting colours for the appropriate sections of the animals face much easier, as Illustrator automatically registers which colours have been used on the page.

Segments of Image

Using the anchor point tools as well as shaping and sizing allowed me to arrange and place the polygons in the right place on the face.

Product

Main Body

I chose to re-create the Dyson hairdryer using rounded rectangles, ellipses and polygons and a gradient colour. I also created two views of the product to show a profile and front-on. Using the rounded rectangle tool, I created the main body and handle of the hairdryer.

Using two ellipses and punching one through the other, I was able to create the head part.

Creating the Nozzle

I created a rounded rectangle for the main part of this component, then intersected a triangle and a rectangle at the end of the triangle to create a flat topped cone shape.

This is the image before I had rendered and added the other details onto the surface.

Final Image

Using a combination of rounded rectangles and ellipses, I created the buttons and screw components whilst using strokes to make defining outlines. For the ventilation holes at the bottom, I duplicated over and over small polygons of six sides. I then finished by changing the gradient colour to a shade of pink.